Jeffrey Downing
Vice-President for Education
Charles M. Yurgalevitch, Ph.D.
Director, The School of Professional Horticulture
Priscilla Crowell
Office Assistant
Organization
Day-to-day operations of the School are managed by the Director, who also guiders the student with special group projects, plant studies, reviews, and field trips. An advisory board, composed of instructors, education and horticulture staff, and representatives from horticultural businesses, meets periodically ro review school policies and curriculum.
Jessica Arcate is the Curator of Trees and Shrubs at the Garden. She earned a BS in plant science from Cornell and was the Garden Club of America’s Martin McLaren Horticulture Scholarship in 2004-2005, when she interned at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Edinburgh. She is also an ISA-Certified Arborist.
Tolly Beck Community Horticulture Educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland County and a Horticulturist for Lasdon Park and Arboretum, Westchester County Parks, Recreation and Conservation.
Jamie Boyer Associate Director for Teacher Professional Development at the Garden and a Ph.D. candidate at SUNY, Binghamton, where he studies the evolution and development of early land plants.
David Bulpitt Soil Science Instructor, Principal of Brookside Nurseries, Inc., which produces soil mixes, B.S. University of Massachusetts.
Wayne Cahilly Horticulture Instructor, Manager of Institutional Mapping for the Garden, arborist, garden consultant, Diploma, School of Professional Horticulture.
Francisca Coelho Diploma, School of Professional Horticulture. Associate Vice-President for Glasshouses and Exhibitions.
Mark Cupkovic Horticulture Instructor, Associate Vice President for Operations for the Garden, B.S. Miami University, Ohio.
Caroline DeWilde Horticulture Instructor, former Director, School Professional Horticulture, M.P.S. Cornell University.
Jim Diermeier Associate Director of Outdoor Gardens and Home Gardening at NYBG. He has extensive experience in landscape and grounds maintenance and is past president of the N.Y. State Turfgrass Assocation.
Alice Eckerson, RLA, holds an MLA from the University of Virginia and owns her own business in Fairfield, Conn.
William Einhorn Landscape Design Instructor, principal of Landscape Design Associates, B.L.A. College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse.
Nancy Gerlach-Spriggs Co-author of The Restorative Garden: Healing Landscape, and Executive Co-director of the non-profit organization Meristem. B.S.L.A. City College of New York and M.L.A. Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Marc Hachadourian is the Curator of Glasshouse Collections for the Garden and holds a BS in plant science from Cornell University. With over 15 years of commercial and specialist horticultural experience, he supervises the care of the botanical collections and exhibition crops in the Nolen Greenhouses.
Holly Hepp Adjunct professor of speech at Manhattan College. B.A. with honors from Skidmore College.
Bill Logan ISA-certified arborist, Member of the American Society of Consulting Arborists, founder and president of Urban Arborists, Inc., journalist and author of Oak: The Frame of Civilization and Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth.
Gary Lincoff Has taught plant studies at the Garden since the 1970s. Is author if several books on mushrooms including The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. He was the recipient of the 2002 NYBG “Instructor of the Year Award.”
Sharita Mason is a graduate of the Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture. She has a BA in English literature & history and an MA in teaching history, both from Lehman College. She has worked for over twenty years in both the collections and in plant production for special exhibits, and is currently a senior gardener in the Garden’s Nolen Greenhouses.
Kurt Morrell Graduate of The School of Professional Horticulture, now Director of Arboretum, Grounds & Gardens at NYBG.
Todd Osmundson Botanist, NYBG Graduate Studies Program & Columbia University Dept. of Ecology, Evolution & Environmental Biology. M.S. Montana State University.
Susan Pell, Ph.D. Lousiana State University. Plant Molecular Systematist and Laboratory Manager at Brooklyn Botanic Garden; Program Coordinator for Botany at NYBG.
Paul Roland, Ph.D Has taught DEC’s required pesticide and recertification courses at many colleges and institutions.
Michael Ruggiero Horticulture Instructor, Former Senior Curator for Horticulture, at the
Garden; co-author of Annuals with Style, senior horticulturist at Matterhorn Nursery.
Magda Salvesen Landscape Instructor, art historian, M.A. University of St. Andrews, Scotland and the Courtauld Institute in London.
Mobee Weinstein Foreman of Gardeners at the Garden, Horticulture Instructor, Diploma School of Professional Horticulture, B.S. Lehman College.
Ellen Zachos Program Coordinator of the Gardening Program, and a graduate of Harvard University. Her company, Acme Plant Stuff, designs, installs, and maintains interior and exterior gardens in the New York area.
Boris Zakharov, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Assistant Professor with CUNY, Manhattan, and a substitute assistant professor with John Jay College of Criminal Justice where he is also a course scientist.
Toby Adams Family Garden Manager
Jessica Arcate Associate Curator of Woody Plants
Joe Brand Propagation Range Manager
Wayne Cahilly Manager of the Lionel Goldfrank III Institutional Mapping Department
Ursula Chanse Director of Bronx Green-Up
Francisca Coelho Associate Vice-President for Glasshouses and Exhibitions
Jim Diermeier Associate Director of Outdoor Gardens
Margaret Falk Associate Vice-President for Landscape, Gardens and Living Collections
Todd Forrest Vice-President for Horticulture and Living Collections
Don Gabel, I.P.M. Manager
Marc Hachadourian Curator of Glasshouse Collections
Peter Kukielski Curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden
Kurt Morrell Director, Arboretum, Grounds, and Gardens
